Google has penalized the Chrome home page in its search results after …

Google's search team has demoted the main page for its Chrome browser for at least 60 days after being accused of violating its own policy against paid links with a marketing campaign designed to boost Chrome's popularity. Searching Google for "chrome" no longer brings up www.google.com/chrome in the first page of results, but the first result is still a guide from Google on how to download and install Chrome. Reporter Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land notes that searching for "browser" also no longer brings up the Chrome home page among the top results, whereas it was previously the second result after Firefox.

"We’ve investigated and are taking manual action to demote and lower the site’s PageRank for a period of at least 60 days," Google said in a statement supplied to Search Engine Land.

The action was taken because Google sponsored hundreds of blog posts that seem to be little more than advertisements for Chrome. Google blamed Unruly Media, the advertising firm that ran the campaign on Google's behalf, saying in a statement supplied to AllThingsD that “Google never agreed to anything more than online ads. We have consistently avoided paid sponsorships, including paying bloggers to promote our products, because these kind of promotions are not transparent or in the best interests of users. We’re now looking at what changes we need to make to ensure that this never happens again.”

The Google statement quoted by Search Engine Land also notes that "While Google did not authorize this campaign, and we can find no remaining violations of our webmaster guidelines, we believe Google should be held to a higher standard, so we have taken stricter action than we would against a typical site."

If you're curious, searching Microsoft's Bing for "browser" doesn't bring up Chrome in the regular results, but it does come up as a clearly-marked advertising link. Searching Bing for chrome brings up the Chrome home page first.

What should really happen is to just act as if the chrome pages (and all google products for that matter) were a product from any other company/individual and not interfere with it at all, be it positive or negative.

If it comes up first on search, it should be because people are either searching for it or visiting it. It should not be downgraded or upgraded just because it is a product of google. Let the search algorithms do their work and return the best possible results.

What should really happen is to just act as if the chrome pages (and all google products for that matter) were a product from any other company/individual and not interfere with it at all, be it positive or negative.

If it comes up first on search, it should be because people are either searching for it or visiting it. It should not be downgraded or upgraded just because it is a product of google. Let the search algorithms do their work and return the best possible results.

Manual downgrades of sites that game the system are part of the search algorithm

So Google demotes Chrome which generates press on lots of blogs and thus Chrome is now promoted more through alternative channels.

You know, I didn't think of that. it's brilliant!

But yeah, what did they expect? All sorts of publications are selling their praise (sorry, "editorial space") to advertisers. It's really not uncommon these days. They'll often include it in a package deal along with ad space. I understand their rule but it sounds like their punishing the PR firm for doing the job they asked them to do.

GALAHAD: It's not the Chrome? DINGO: Oh, wicked, bad, naughty, evil Zoot! Oh, she is a naughty person, and she must pay the penalty -- and here in Castle Google, we have but one punishment for setting alight the Chrome-shaped beacon. You must tie her down on a bed and spank her! GIRLS: A spanking! A spanking! DINGO: You must spank her well. And after you have spanked her, you may deal with her as you like. And then, spank me. VARIOUS GIRLS: And spank me. And me. And me. DINGO: Yes, yes, you must give us all a good spanking! GIRLS: A spanking! A spanking! DINGO: And after the spanking, the oral sex. GIRLS: Oral sex! Oral sex! GALAHAD: Well, I could stay a BIT longer.

Seriously, this is the worst people can say about Google? Really? If this were Microsoft, people would faint dead away that they were even punishing themselves. Miracles would be proclaimed and church bells would be sounded all through the Redmond area.

So Google demotes Chrome which generates press on lots of blogs and thus Chrome is now promoted more through alternative channels.

right but the difference here is that the information is spread through legitimate publications by many sources, instead of a single source blasting out a ton of meaningless posts. that's the whole idea behind pagerank, if real sources are linking back to this, then it belongs at the top. even if they end up at the same rank they started with, the point is how they got there.

GALAHAD: It's not the Chrome? DINGO: Oh, wicked, bad, naughty, evil Zoot! Oh, she is a naughty person, and she must pay the penalty -- and here in Castle Google, we have but one punishment for setting alight the Chrome-shaped beacon. You must tie her down on a bed and spank her! GIRLS: A spanking! A spanking! DINGO: You must spank her well. And after you have spanked her, you may deal with her as you like. And then, spank me. VARIOUS GIRLS: And spank me. And me. And me. DINGO: Yes, yes, you must give us all a good spanking! GIRLS: A spanking! A spanking! DINGO: And after the spanking, the oral sex. GIRLS: Oral sex! Oral sex! GALAHAD: Well, I could stay a BIT longer.

Seriously, this is the worst people can say about Google? Really? If this were Microsoft, people would faint dead away that they were even punishing themselves. Miracles would be proclaimed and church bells would be sounded all through the Redmond area.

I use FireFox. It's marginally slower but I like the way it's addons work. Chrome addons feel more rinky-dink and it's privacy options suck. FireFox always totally erases everything I do when I close the browser.

Hard to judge Google fairly here. On the one hand, it's good that they're admitting they screwed up but on the other hand, they are kind of getting what they want (getting everyone thinking about Chrome) by doing so ... which is bad. But can't be helped at this point. They sort of got themselves in a situation where there was no right thing to do other than what they did to deal with the problem I guess.

I use FireFox. It's marginally slower but I like the way it's addons work. Chrome addons feel more rinky-dink and it's privacy options suck. FireFox always totally erases everything I do when I close the browser.

Hard to judge Google fairly here. On the one hand, it's good that they're admitting they screwed up but on the other hand, they are kind of getting what they want (getting everyone thinking about Chrome) by doing so ... which is bad. But can't be helped at this point. They sort of got themselves in a situation where there was no right thing to do other than what they did to deal with the problem I guess.

So, first, that's not the default configuration of firefox. Most users (read at least 4 nines) don't want that behaviour as its needlessly paranoid.

Judge them as you will, but the story would have gone out anyway, now it reads, oops we did a bad thing but we're making amends...instead of google did a bad thing, but no comment. And as said, this is different promotion from the thing they did before which was bad, this is normal promotion which is just fine.

Question their motives if you will, I don't know what they were thinking, but its relatively silly to think there is "one" motive.

I use FireFox. It's marginally slower but I like the way it's addons work. Chrome addons feel more rinky-dink and it's privacy options suck. FireFox always totally erases everything I do when I close the browser.

Doesn't sound like an out of the box FF install. I use both at home but forced to use IE at work. Ironically, I always get malware, virus, trojans, etc at work from just browsing innocuous sites like here, CNN, Amazon.com etc (Other sites get blocked) and yet I don't have issues at home on either Chrome or FF where I have way more leeway in my browsing affairs.

Even now, I'm typing this post, my machine plagued with crap and will have to call IT to "disinfect" it again.

GALAHAD: It's not the Chrome? DINGO: Oh, wicked, bad, naughty, evil Zoot! Oh, she is a naughty person, and she must pay the penalty -- and here in Castle Google, we have but one punishment for setting alight the Chrome-shaped beacon. You must tie her down on a bed and spank her!......

My first thought was

Basil Fawlty: "Oh, its my fault is it? I thought it was your fault for falling asleep or Manuels fault for not waking you, and all the while it was my fault. Oh, its so obvious. Now I’ve seen the light! Well, I must be punished then, mustn’t I?"[Spanking himself] "You’re a naughty boy, Basil!"[Hitting forehead] "Don’t do it again!"

Alternately, this whole song and dance was actually a ploy to find bloggers that would take paid placements, so that they could be down-ranked when posts about Chrome suddenly appeared regardless of apparent relevance.

Basil Fawlty: "Oh, its my fault is it? I thought it was your fault for falling asleep or Manuels fault for not waking you, and all the while it was my fault. Oh, its so obvious. Now I’ve seen the light! Well, I must be punished then, mustn’t I?"[Spanking himself] "You’re a naughty boy, Basil!"[Hitting forehead] "Don’t do it again!"

See - now I'm going to have to watch that whole series again. I completely forgot about that line!

While I'm at it, I'll have to watch some more Black Adder, Fry and Laurie, Are You Being Served and let's see, what else have the Brits given us for excellent comedy in the last few decades?